Cross-Examination

• Progressive taxation soaks the rich: The Democrats have long accused the rich of not paying their “fair share” in taxes. Indeed, Joe Biden reiterated that tired talking point ahead of his 2024 budget proposal this week. The trouble is the claim is simply not true. But, as the saying goes, repeat a lie long enough and eventually people will believe it to be true. According to IRS data in 2020, the top 1% of earners paid 42.3% of the nation’s income taxes — paying roughly double on their adjusted gross income the amount paid by the rest of taxpayers. The top 5% of income earners payed 62.7% of all income taxes. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of earners paid just 2.3% of all income taxes. Remember all that when Biden talks about “fair share” in taxes.

• NBA Raptors apologize for celebrating women: March happens to be Women’s History Month, so the NBA’s Toronto Raptors decided to give a shout-out to women. In a video posted on social media, players state: “Girls run the world because they are the only ones that can procreate. They birth everybody. All women are great because they’re all queens.” Well, that basic factually sound and complimentary message sent leftists into a conniption, as the NBA team was blasted over social media for failing to adhere to the woke narrative that “men can be women.” Instead of ignoring this literal nonsense, the Raptors bowed to the woke mob and issued an apology: “Our sincerest apologies to our players, our staff and our fans — we’ll work to do better today and every day after.” You know the woke is bad when an organization apologizes for sharing basic truth.

• School board member: Christian values “not safe” for students: A school board member of the Washington Elementary School District serving the Phoenix, Arizona, area recently asserted that Christian teachers are “not … safe” for students. The board member, who identifies as a “bilingual, disabled, neurodivergent Queer Black Latina,” argued that the district should dissolve its student teacher partnership with Arizona Christian University because the school held to biblical views on sexuality, marriage, and gender, and therefore represented a threat to the LGBT values she espoused. Evidently, the groomers don’t want the presence of Christian teachers to upset their agenda of indoctrinating the kids into their leftist ideology. Ironically, one of the other school board members obtusely observed of the Christian school, “Proselytizing is embedded into how they teach, and I just don’t believe that that belongs in schools.” And the LGBT agenda does? Is it any wonder a growing number of parents are pulling their children out of public schools?

• UK PM vows to deport all illegals. What about our leader? Democrats love to tout Europe as the example of more advanced and developed thinking when it comes to political policies. Well, comments from United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak definitely set a policy example Joe Biden should embrace. On Sunday, Sunak issued the following warning: “Make no mistake, if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.” He then explained, “Illegal migration is not fair on British taxpayers, it is not fair on those who come here legally, and it is not right that criminal gangs should be allowed to continue their immoral trade.” Hear, hear. For context, the UK experienced a total of 45,000 illegal entries in all of 2022, which was enough for Sunak to issue his ultimatum. Meanwhile, on this side of the pond, more than five million people have illegally crossed the U.S. southern border since Biden took office.

• CNN viewership continues to sink: The high-flying days of the Trump era are long gone for CNN, as the Leftmedia outlet experienced some of its worst viewership numbers in nearly a decade in February. In the key advertiser demographic of viewers age 25 to 54, CNN’s prime-time programs had the lowest month since May 2012 and the third-lowest since 2001. Acquired last year by Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN has proven to be little other than a lead weight for the Manhattan-based media empire, which CEO David Zaslav effectively conceded when he told investors that a turnaround “isn’t gonna happen overnight.” Maybe the question investors should be asking is this: “Will it ever happen?” Currently, CNN’s prime-time target audience is less than 17 other cable channels, including the likes of Hallmark, MTV, and FXX. Even Don Lemon’s controversial comment regarding “women in their prime” hasn’t been enough to generate a slight bounce in negative publicity interest. Apparently, more and more people are simply uninterested in CNN’s product, but who can blame them?

• Two racist Hawaiians sentenced for attacking a white man: Two 33-year-old Hawaiian men were given prison sentences for a racially motivated violent attack against a white man back in 2014. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke, “The defendants in this case nearly killed a man because they believed he did not belong in their neighborhood because of the color of his skin.” The white victim had purchased a house in the neighborhood in question and was in the process of moving in when he was confronted by the two assailants who told him to pack and leave, stating, “Your skin is the wrong f***ing color.” They then hit him on the head with a shovel and proceeded to kick him after he fell, breaking two of his ribs. It’s yet another reminder that racism is not a uniquely white problem but in fact plagues all races.

Headlines

• In Selma, Biden says right to vote remains under assault (AP)

• Biden chides GOP for “trying to hide the truth” about black history in marking Bloody Sunday (The Hill)

• Marianne Williamson launches another bid for president as a Democrat (Daily Wire)

• Trump overwhelmingly wins CPAC’s Republican primary straw poll with DeSantis coming in a distant second (Fox News)

• The tsunami of big tech layoffs continues (Not the Bee)

• Novak Djokovic withdraws from BNP Paribas Open after being denied entry to U.S. over COVID vaccine status (Fox News)

• Walmart set to close all stores in Portland amid record-breaking retail theft (National Review)

• Antifa thugs firebomb Atlanta public training facility construction site (PJ Media)

• Policy: Busting five myths of gender ideology (National Review)

• Humor: Panic erupts on Delta flight as captain of female crew announces that “everything’s fine” (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.